Woven wire and method of producing the same



E. D. REYNOLDS WOVEN WIRE AND METHOD OF PRODUCING THE SAME Filed Feb.'26, 1930 A Patented Jan. 9, 1934 UNITED STATES WOVEN WIRE AND METHOD OFPRODUC- ING THE SAME Elmer D. Reynolds, Dixon, 111., assignor toReynolds Wire 00., Dixon, 111., a corporation of Illinois ApplicationFebruary 26, 1930. Serial No. 431,631

9 Claims My invention relates to wire cloth and has special reference towide-mesh cloth wherein the wire employed in its manufacture isrelatively fine or small in diameter.

In the past it has been necessary to manufacture wide-mesh cloth, forexample, 2 to 10 mesh cloth, from relatively heavy wire, usually .02 ofan inch in diameter or greater. By 2 to 10 mesh cloth I mean clothhaving 2 to 10 strands W per inch. There are a great many uses to whichwide-mesh cloth may be put wherein a heavy wire is not necessary andwherein the cost of such a cloth becomes prohibitive. Among such usesmay be mentioned those wherein wire cloth i5 is placed between layers ofpaper, cloth, felt, or the like, or other materials of low mechanicalstrength for the purposes of reenforecement. In many cases heavy wirecloth is a positive detriment because of the reduction in theflexibility of the sheet resulting from its use. Fine Wire wide-meshcloth, while considerably cheaper, because of the smaller amount ofmetal required in its manufacture, has been so unstable that itcollapses during handling and before it can be positi ied between thesheets or imbedded in the sheet material with which it is to be used,and consequently has not been available commerciah 1y. However, afterthe cloth is positioned it is usually suitably held between the sheetsor the like by adhesives whereby it is prevented from. collapsing. Theproblem therefore, is to provide a metal cloth of thischaracter at lowcost having suflicient stability to withstand the abuse incident to itshandling between the time of its manufacture and the time when it isfinally positioned in the material with which it is to be used. Whenfiner wire has been used it has been very dimcult to maintain thestrands in their proper position, the strands spontaneously moving outof position, distorting the cloth sheet and rendering it practicallyvalueless. As a matter of fact, when the wire becomes too small, thestrands move to such an extent under the natural spring tension placedupon them during weaving, that the cloth collapses, becoming a mere massof desired position to form the cloth These bending operations set upstrains in the metal which result in a tendency for the wire to returnto its prior condition. However, when fine wire is used for a wide-meshcloth very little, if any, crimp is formed in the wire. This is, ofcourse, neces-- sarily so, since, as the 'diameter of the wire increasesand the width of the mesh increases, the size of the angle through whichthe wire must be bent to pass over one strand and under another,decreases. In reality when wire such as that contemplated in myinvention is employed to form woven cloth, the individual strands arepractically straight, and have no appreciable crimp. It is this crimp orbend in the wire which normally causes the individual strands of thewoven cloth to maintain their position, against the spring tension ofthe wire, and thus lend permanent structure to the cloth. The absence ofthis crimp and the decrease in the rigidity of the wire itself, aided bythetension under which the wire is placed by weaving, results in thecloth having a tendency to collapse, as set forth. For these reasons ithas been, if not impossible, highly impractical to manufacturesatisfactory cloth of this characteri I have therefore aimed to providea method for manufacturing wide-mesh wire cloth at a lower cost than hasheretofore been possible.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a method formanufacturing wide-mesh cloth wherein -wire of substantially smallerdiameter may be employed to produce a commercially usable product at asubstantial reduction in material cost.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a wide-mesh cloth ofa smaller wire than has heretofore been possible.

A still further object of the invention is the provision of a wovenwide-mesh wire cloth wherein the individual strands are of smalldiameter and are held in position solely because of their weaving andrequire -no additional means for stabilizing the cloth.

Other objects and attendant advantages will become apparent to thoseskilled in the art from the following description and the accompanyingdrawing, in which Figure 1 is a diagrammatic view showing the manner inwhich the woven cloth emerges from the m and is wound into rolls;

Fig. 2'is fa diagrammatic view showing a crosssection of'an oven withthe rolls of cloth posiiioned on end therein for treatment; and

of cloth showing-the manner in which the cloth Fig. 3 is a perspectiveview of a completed roll may be unrolled to lie flat afterit has beenheattreated.

Heretofore it has been impractical to manufacture wire screen cloth oflessthan twelve-mesh ofwire having a diameter-less than .02 of an inch.1 In commercial practice it has been found that the .use-of smaller wireresults in a perishable product which cannot be satisfactorily stored orhandled. The usual practice is to make no cloth of less than twelve-meshof wire having a diameter less than .02 of an inch. However, cloth downto'six-mesh may be made of wire having this diameter. Five-mesh,cloth ismade of wirenot smaller than .023, four-mesh cloth of wirenot smallerthan .028,- three-mesh cloth of wire not smaller than .032, and two-meshcloth of-wire not smaller than .041.

In carrying out my inve'ntionI employ wire of diameter substantiallysmaller than the small- 2 est heretofore consideredpractical. Forexample,

in commercial practice I have satisfactorily used wire of .01 of an inchin diameter. for the manufacture of four-mesh cloth. This fine wire maybe used in the manufacture of 'cloth'of l2-mesh or less which may bestored and handled without material depreciation. The invention isparticularly advantageous, however, in the manufacture of cloth of lessthan six-mesh, for as the mesh decreases below this point it has beennecessary in the past to increase the diameter of the wire as previouslyset forth. I have found the invention of particular value in themanufacture of reenforcing cloth of four-mesh for which I havesatisfactorily employed wire of a diameter of .01 of an inch.

According to-my invention the wire to be-used in the-manufacture of linewire wide-mesh cloth ismade by any of theusual wire-drawing processes.The cold drawing processes produce a wire whiclf'is hardened and has aconsiderable amount of springiness, such as cold drawnsteel wire. Whilethe hardness produced in wires 'of this character is a desirablecharacteristic, the spring tendency of the wire becomes a problem in the5 manufacture of cloth of this type. The wire is woven into cloth in theusual manner on the usual wire cloth loom, the numeral 6 designating thecloth as it comes from a loom indicated by the dotted lines bearing thenumeral 7 in Fig. 1.

These looms continuously wind up the cloth, as it is being woven, intorolls 9 of desired size around center pieces indicated generally by thenumeral 8. When the rolls contain several hundred'feet of the cloth theyare tied up tightly and removed bodily from the loom, the center piece 8being removed'therefrom. .The rolls as they are removed from the loomare taken to a heat treating'oven 11, as shown in Fig. 2, where they areplaced on end and there exposed to a temperago ture of approximately 700F..for about two hours.

I have found that any temperature in thev socalled bluing range, or therange of temperature in which a blue color is conferred upon the steel,-

, is well suited to bring about the desired results.

55 The period of time for which the heating must v be continued will, ofcourse, depend upon the temperature to which the wire is exposed, tem-.

peratures at the lower side of the bluing range requiring more time thanthe temperatures at the upper edge of this range. Obviously also, the

heating time will depend upon the quantity of wire being treated and onthe time required to bring the total mass to the bluing tempegature.

by the drawing and weaving operations, are relit. about two hours] willbe required to bring about the desired results.-

I am led to believe that through the heating operation the strains whichhad previously been set up in the individual wires of the metal clothlieved, thereby destroying any tendency which the wires may have tomovefrom their appointed places in the cloth. It is possible that a portionof the springiness is removed from the wire dur ing this process, butthis has been found to be insufilcient to affect the strength of thecloth, if it does occur.

I have found that if the rolls, as they are removed from the loom, arepermitted to stand, without this heating step, a gradual but continuousmovement of the wiresor individual strands of the cloth occursspontaneously, resulting in the gradual collapsing of the cloth. On theother hand, if the wire as it comes from the loom is immediately placedin the, treating oven and subiected to the heat treatment outlined, thecloth,

after being removed from the oven, may be permitted to stand foranindefinite length of time the usual manner without undergoingappreciable disintegration. This is in exact contrast with the untreatedI cloth, which, if unrolled and spread out in sheet form, tends to curlup from all edges toward the center and becomes practically impossibleto handle in the usual way.

Thus, the hard steel wires are bent into the desired shape in the loom.They still possess, because of the internal strain set up by thisbending process, a tendency to return to their former shape. If thecloth is permitted to stand at this time the wires'will graduallyreturn, at ieast-partially,'to their previous condition, distorting thecloth and causing it to collapse. However, when 15 the cloth issubjectedto heat in the oven, the strains are removed from the wires while thecloth is yet firmly held in the roll and the tendency for the individualwires to return to their.

-'eration has occurred the wires of the cloth tend to remain in thedesired position and may only be moved therefrom by actual mechanicalforce. Even when so moved they have a slight tendency to return to theirdesiredposition in the wire cloth fabric.

It will be seen that by my improved-process I have produced a wire clothof wide mesh and fine strands which may be handled in every way as theordinary wire cloth. The cloth may be unrplled'and handledin the usualmanner. It may be positioned in materials of low mechanical strength toproduce an article of substantia lower cost than heretofore possible.It-may be cut into sheets and placed between sheets of cloth, rubber, onthe like, without material difliculty. Because of the wide mesh and thesmall size of the wire, only a small amount of metal is used to make alarge amount of cloth. There is, therefore, a substantial saving in thecost of-1'40 materials, which is reflected in a cloth of low cost. Themethod is simple and involves no operations directed toward tying theindividual st nds together other than the weaving operatio s themselves.I

While I have thus described and illustrated a specific embodiment of myinvention 1 am aware thaQ numerous alterations and changes may be madetherein without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I do notwish tolbe limited 150 except as required by the prior art and the scopeof the a pended claims in which- I claim: a

1. The method of 'making wire cloth which includes weaving wire of adiameter less than .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh, andheating the cloth to a temperature within the bluing range of steel fora suflicient length of time to substantially relieve the strains in thewire.

2. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wireof a diameter less than .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh,and heating the cloth to a temperature in the region of 700 F. for atime sufficient to substantially relieve the strains in the wire.

3. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wireof a diameter less than.02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh,and heating the cloth to a temperature-in the region of 700 F.-for abouttwo hours.

- 4. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wireof a diameter less than .02fiof an inch into cloth of about 4 mesh, andheating the cloth to a temperature in the region of 700 F. for about twohours.'

5. A wide-mesh woven wire cloth of mesh less than 12, the strands ofwhich are held together solely by reason of their weaving, said strandsbeing less than .02 of an inch in diameter, having includes weavingferrous wire of a diameter less 'than .02 of an inch into cloth of lessthan 12 mesh,

winding said cloth into rolls, and heating said cloth in the rolls to atemperature in the region of 700 degrees F. for about two hours.

8. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving ferrous wireofa diameter less than .0201? an inch into cloth of less than 12' meshby means of a loom, winding the cloth into rolls as it emerges from theloom, and heating the cloth in the rolls to a temperature in the regionof 700 degrees F. for about two hours.

9. The method of making wire cloth which includes weaving wire of adiameter less than about .02 of an inch into cloth of less than 12 mesh,and heating the clothto a temperature suificient to substantiallyrelieve the strains in the wire without materially affecting is strengthand hardness.

. ELMER D. REYNOLDS.

